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100 years since the first woman was admitted to the role of solicitors…

100 years since the first woman was admitted to the role of solicitors…

Lawyers have been around since the time of ancient Greece and Rome, and developed their role more thoroughly from the 12th and 13th centuries. However, until the Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act of 1919, women were not allowed to qualify as solicitors because, being female, they were not classified as ‘persons’ allowed to practice under the Solicitors Act of 1843.

Carrie Morrison was the first woman to be admitted to the roll of solicitors by the Law Society of England and Wales, on 18 December 1922. In the following year three others were admitted, namely Maud Isabel Crofts, Mary Elizabeth Pickup and Mary Elaine Sykes. By October 1922 there were between 60 and 70 women articled clerks studying to become solicitors. By the end of that year, as well as four female solicitors, there were hundreds of women sitting as magistrates and 11 women had become barristers.

So we should celebrate those early pioneers, whose determination to succeed has brought about a profession in which today 52.6% of those currently on the roll of solicitors are now women.
Notwithstanding the time that has passed and the fact that over half of the profession are now female, in many firms the senior positions are still held almost exclusively by men and in some firms it is unusual find a female managing partner. So perhaps there is still work to be done to achieve gender equality not only in leadership but in the ownership of the larger practices.